Dick Lugar has the reputation, deserved or not, of being the gentleman of the Senate, a now-grandfatherly figure who is well-liked personally if not politically.

Lugar now is in the political fight of his life against Richard Mourdock. Lugar is fighting back, as I pointed out previously, with blatantly false accusations calling Mourdock a tax cheat, and absurd race-card plays.

Now even FactCheck.org is calling Lugar out on the numerous lies being spread by Lugar’s campaign and SuperPAC:

The Republican primary for Sen. Richard Lugar’s seat is apparently too close for comfort. Both Lugar’s campaign and the American Action Network are airing misleading attack ads against Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock, the senator’s challenger for the nomination. The ads strain the facts to make Mourdock look like a tax cheat who makes bad investments and does not show up for work.

The AAN ad claims that “Hoosier pensions and other funds lost millions” because of Mourdock’s “big bet on junk bonds.” That’s an exaggeration. It’s true that three state funds that purchased Chrysler debt in 2008 lost money when that company went through bankruptcy in 2009. But Mourdock didn’t oversee the investments of the Indiana Teacher’s Retirement Fund, which is the only one that actually lost “millions.”

Ads from both the AAN and the Lugar campaign fault Mourdock for receiving an illegal second homestead deduction on a condominium he purchased in 2006. But the previous owner of the property, not Mourdock, applied for the deduction. Mourdock claimed that he notified the county auditor’s office of the illegal deduction in 2007. And the county auditor’s office has actually said that it erred in not removing the credit.

The AAN ad also says that Mourdock has “skipped 66 percent of his official board meetings.” That’s true, according to an analysis done by Howey Politics Indiana. In his defense, Mourdock’s office says that the treasurer or his designee sits on 13 boards and commissions, and that Mourdock is nearly always represented by a senior staff member when he doesn’t attend meetings personally.

I’ll repeat something I said several days ago, and which is becoming more obvious with each passing day:

In order to win, Lugar needs to lie about Mourdock; in order to win, Mourdock needs to tell the truth about Lugar.

Is throwing away a reputation built over 36 years really the way Lugar wants to go out? Is a seventh term in the Senate worth the cost of Lugar’s reputation?

Seeing as how nearly every Senator has to be carried out of the “World’s Most Deliberative Body” feet first, is this really a surprise?

I lived in IN when grandpa Dick was elected. Compared to what we had in office at the time, he appeared to be somewhere near Dick Cheney in his political bent. Somewhere around his second term when he began to feel invincible, his car began veering to the left as if his wife were driving.

Has there ever been a better case for term limits? The phenomenon you saw with Lugar has been repeated dozens (hundreds?) of times in DC. I lived and worked in DC for 40 years and observed it many times. Being in the Congress just corrupts people, even good people. I don’t really have a clear explanation, but certainly happens a lot, although not always.

“It’s true that three state funds that purchased Chrysler debt in 2008 lost money when that company went through bankruptcy in 2009. But Mourdock didn’t oversee the investments of the Indiana Teacher’s Retirement Fund, which is the only one that actually lost “millions.””

Mourdock fought against the bailout of Chrysler which left secured creditors — including Hoosier retirement funds — in the dust.

Lugar supported that very bailout.

It’s almost as if Lugar and his pals, in bringing up supposed dirt on Mourdock, are *trying* to remind folks why they shouldn’t vote for Lugar.

… and the beat goes on. Here is the latest attack by the Lugar campaign:

The Richard Mourdock campaign is being accused of conducting an electronic break-n at state Republican headquarters. It has been denied access to a GOP database as a result.

The state Republican party maintains a database of voters and contributors using a software program known as Salesforce. To access it you must pay a fee and sign a user agreement. The state GOP is investigating whether the Richard Mourdock campaign violated the agreement.

The campaign of Richard Lugar, Mourdock’s primary opponent, is providing encouragement. “Someone is electronically attempting to break in to intellectual property that belongs to the state committee,” says Lugar campaign spokesman Andy Fisher. ” I think this is a very serious issue.”

Mourdock campaign manager Jim Holden sent an email that led the state party to cut off Mourdock campaign access to the database. The email encouraged staffers to “start pillaging email addresses like a Viking raider attacking a monestary (sic) full of unarmed monks.”

The Mourdock campaign said that both Holden and Mourdock were unavailable today. The only reaction was a statement that says the campaign never accessed the software in question and nothing was inappropriately done.

[…]

The Mourdock campaign says that Holden’s email was a sarcastic joke taken out of context. The Lugar campaign, meantime, is using the database to inform voters about this controversy.

If there were term limits, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. In my not-so-humble-opinion term limits for ALL elected offices are way overdue. But don’t expect such to occur soon since it would not be self serving for the average career politician.

I lived in Indiana when Dick Lugar was mayor of Indianapolis and was elected Senator. He always had a strong interest in foreign affairs and developed that interest to gain a good reputation in the Senate. I met him in person several times while living there (I now live in Texas). Today, however, I hardly recognize the man and his expertise in foreign affairs has waned in the face of the growing threat from Islamic fundamentalism and its support of jihad. It’s long, past time for Dick to retire. Since he won’t take that route, he needs to be defeated. When I heard Richard Mourdock speak at CPAC last February, I was very impressed and have been lobbying everyone I know in Indiana to vote for him, including my mother.

[…] In a post reminiscent of the old saw that you have to watch people closely when they talk because liars mouths move up and down when they lie; Professor Jacobson’s Legal Insurrection notes that Indiana Senator Richard Lugar is likely to lose both his seat and his reputation. […]

[…] oft-cited Leftist fact-checker. From the esteemed Cornell Law School professor William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection: Lugar now is in the political fight of his life against Richard Mourdock. Lugar is fighting back, […]